On Thursday, February 13, at 6:00 p.m., at the Delancey Street Screening Room in San Francisco, join new CWC member Ashia Solei for an inspiring screening of Underdogs. This documentary, airing nationally on PBS and the WORLD Channel, follows homeless dogs transformed into adoptable animals through the training efforts of prisoners and highlights the power of clear, kind, and consistent communication and second chances. Director Ashia will be joined by Emmy-winning broadcaster and former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres. Find more details at Underdogs Documentary.

The latest issue of Spirited Voices: A Writing Journey into the Deep Imagination features impressive work by CWC members Megan E. McDonald, Margaret Nalbach, Drew Oman, and Donna Wocher, with art direction by Doug Baird. Darlene Frank is the editor and publisher of this digital magazine. This is issue #10. Enjoy!

James Hanna’s essay, “Orville Baumgardner and Carrion Crows 2,” appears in A Thin Slice of Anxiety. This piece addresses the Supreme Court’s “presidential immunity” decision.

Independent Press Awards has given Hanna’s novella, Lights Out Lizzie, a Distinguished Favorite Award.

Join developmental editor Eva Barrows and copy editor Lila LaBine on February 12 at 11 a.m. for a free one-hour Zoom discussion on when to show, when not tell, and when to listen to your authorial gut feeling as you write. Register for this Ask an Editor workshop at https://www.evabarrows.com/workshops

How do you start your research process? What are the surface, deep, and dark webs? How can we ethically use people’s searches for our purposes? Come to Writers Helping Writers at San Mateo Public Library on Thursday, February 13, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Geri Spieler will discuss online search methods, which include several methodologies to equip you with the skills and tools you need to find accurate and reliable information.

Do you need to cut 500 words from your story? Or did you neglect to mention, after one page of description, that your story takes place in the suburbs? On Thursday, February 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. at the Rinconada Library, join Lisa Meltzer Penn in a hands-on Writers Helping Writers session and learn how to “push” back what you don’t need and “pull” forward what you do.

To protect their intellectual property rights, authors need to understand the essentials of publishing contracts, from grants of rights to termination clauses and severability. That knowledge gives individuals the confidence to evaluate, negotiate, and succeed in forming mutually beneficial agreements. Come to our branch meeting on Saturday, January 18, from 10:00 a.m. to noon to hear Vanessa MacLaren-Wray discuss publishing agreements, basic contract terms, and other contract issues.

When writing a story or article, do you ever pause and look at a word, wondering if you have used it correctly? For instance, do you know the difference between the meanings of “homed” and “honed?” On Thursday, January 9, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the San Mateo Public Library, Claudia Hyslop will talk about common grammar errors and how to avoid them.

Conventional wisdom and recent guidance in traditional publishing hold that, in the process of seeking representation for your work, you should expect to send at least one hundred query letters.

But where in the world do you find a hundred or more agents to query? Join writer Megan E. McDonald on Thursday, January 16, 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. at the Rinconada Library, as she demystifies the process of compiling a comprehensive agent target list.

Choosing the right point of view and narrative distance to tell your story effectively can be difficult. It’s all too easy to break the rules of perspective, causing reader confusion.

Join developmental editor Eva Barrows and copy editor Lila LaBine on Wednesday, January 15 at 11 a.m. PST for a free one-hour Zoom session, to learn about common POV issues authors face and methods to solve them.

Register at www.evabarrows.com/workshops

The first creative nonfiction publication by novelist Bruce Overby is a personal essay titled “Winds of the Great Shame,” now live on Merion West. The work explores Bruce’s Irish Catholic heritage through the dual prisms of his mother’s death and Leon Uris’s 1976 novel Trinity.

On December 5, at the Rinconada branch of the Palo Alto City Library, member David Harris interviewed Geri Spieler, a past president of our branch, about her novel Regina of Warsaw, which is based on her grandmother, who fled the pogroms of Poland to build a new life in America. CWC member Tom Adams produced a video of the interview available on YouTube.

James Hanna’s short story “Orville Baumgardner and the Morning Glories” has found a home in Literally Stories, while his story “Orville Baumgardner and Saint Elmo’s Fire” appears in the 50th and final issue of the Fear of Monkeys, which has published politically oriented writing for over twenty-five years.

BULL has published Hanna’s creative nonfiction, “The Senior Games Pickleball Champion of Franklin County.”

Finally, International Impact Awards has declared Hanna’s novella, Lights Out Lizzie, a winner in the contemporary fiction category.

Colleen Olle’s picture book Sophia and Sinclair Get Lost! has received an enthusiastic review. Laura Smith, a middle-grade author who writes for HubPages, “was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns this story takes” and deems this book “a perfect autumn read.”

In an interview with Laura, Colleen reflects on her picture book writing process and more.

Marianne Brems’s poem “It’s Like That Sometimes” was published in The Midnight Fawn Review on November 30. Learn more about Marianne.

James Hanna’s rant, “Orville Baumgardner and the Circle of Limbo,” appears as a reprint in A Thin Slice of Anxiety. First published in Cream Scene Carnival, this piece combines America’s toxic gun culture with Dante’s Inferno. James takes great pleasure in relegating our NRA puppets to the deepest recesses of hell. After all, why should Dante have all the fun?

Join developmental editor Eva Barrows and copy editor Lila LaBine for a free one-hour Zoom session on Wednesday, January 15, at 11:00 a.m. PST. The discussion will center around common point of view issues authors face when writing their first drafts and methods to solve them. Read more and register here.

On Thursday, December 5 at 6:30 p.m., Geri Spieler will be in conversation with David Harris about her latest book Regina of Warsaw: Love, Loss and Liberation. This historical fiction is based on her grandmother’s story of fleeing the violence and anti-Semitism of Eastern Europe at the turn of the century. This free event will take place in the Embarcadero Room at the Palo Alto Rinconada Library.

Marianne Brems will be one of the guest readers in the Winter 2024 Kelsay Books Reading on Zoom. She will read from her new poetry collection Stepping Stones on December 14 from 12:00–1:30 p.m. If you wish to attend, please register in advance to receive the link. Copies of Stepping Stones are available from Kelsay Books and Amazon. 

From Kelsay Press comes Carol Park’s poetry collection, Songs Sharp & Tender. Often biographical narratives delve into intercultural marriage, local dilemmas (fire and political splits), travel, loss, and a neurodivergent marriage with the anger, grief, and empathy essential to our journey. Find it at Kelsay Books or Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.